Months later, Bundow finds secure housing

Gives thanks to community for generosity

PORTSMOUTH — Formerly living in a motel room and on the verge of homelessness, a retired ballet instructor is now thanking the community for its kindness after finding a permanent solution to her housing needs.

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By Joey Cresta

seacoastonline.com

By Joey Cresta

Posted May. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Joey Cresta

Posted May. 15, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

PORTSMOUTH — Formerly living in a motel room and on the verge of homelessness, a retired ballet instructor is now thanking the community for its kindness after finding a permanent solution to her housing needs.

Diane Bundow, 77, contacted the Portsmouth Herald in January to share her abrupt fall from a secure living situation and the fears she felt about where she was going to end up.

An accomplished instructor at Ballet New England and a former volunteer at Cross Roads House homeless shelter, Bundow struggled with medical problems and a self-reliant attitude that prevented her from accepting help available to her.

She left the Edgewood Centre nursing home because she did not believe she needed someone's assistance with grocery shopping and other chores. She also declined an opening at a Portsmouth Housing Authority property, leaving her with few options besides staying at local motels.

Now, Bundow is comfortably settling in at the Keefe House, a low-income housing apartment for seniors subsidized by the federal government's Housing and Urban Development division.

Bundow recently contacted the Herald again to provide an update on her status and to thank those who provided an overwhelming outpouring of support in her time of need.

"People aren't as bad as they seem to be," she said. "There are good people who care about other people, even if they don't necessarily know them."

Bundow said one woman whom she instructed years ago mailed her a note with a $100 bill inside. An aunt of another former student called and offered her a place to stay.

She said she spent six weeks house-sitting at a home in Stratham for some former colleagues who knew her from volunteering at Cross Roads while the family was vacationing in Florida. Bundow then spent two months at a home in Eliot, Maine, that another good Samaritan offered her.

"I absolutely loved being in Eliot, but I didn't have a car and I was stranded," she said.

She said she knew she had to return to Portsmouth, and happily accepted when her name recently came to the top of the list for an apartment at Keefe House.

Bundow said she moved in May 1 and is still settling in. Once everything is squared away, she said, she plans to get a dog to keep her company and to join her on walks throughout downtown Portsmouth.